Summer, always the ideal season for reading, renews every year the love for literature in all enthusiasts who – taking advantage of the longer days and well-deserved holidays – wish to dedicate themselves to this activity in absolute relaxation.
Cronache della Campania therefore takes the opportunity to start, from today, the column Campania d'Autore which, on a weekly basis, will suggest to its loyal readers, the books of contemporary authors from Campania. Because Campania gives birth to a series of excellent writers, known, less known and debutants capable of fascinating, intriguing and exciting - each with their own narrative style - the most attentive and demanding reader.
Each book proposed will be accompanied by a review that will go into the plot of this and the salient aspects of the story contained therein. This space dedicated to reading is inaugurated by the novel “L'albero di mandarini” published by Rizzoli by Maria Rosaria Selo, a Neapolitan author, an established writer and screenwriter of short films and documentaries who in 2014, with the collection of short stories “La donna immaginaria”, won the competition
literary prize “L'Iguana” dedicated to Anna Maria Ortese, but who has also distinguished herself several times in other literary prizes receiving honorable mention and, with the novel we present to you today, she obtained the nomination for the LXXVI edition of the Strega Prize which ended a few days ago, on July 7, 2022.
“The Mandarin Tree” narrates the experience of a strong, determined woman with a dream in her heart: to study and improve herself. The protagonist is Maria Imparato, a Neapolitan. From Naples in 1940 and the immediate post-war period – because the story goes through the Second World War and then arrives at the period immediately after, as well as arriving at the beginning of the 2000s.
Here we find the true Naples described, of the alleys and traditions. Which suffers the hardships of the war period. Which reacts indomitable and sometimes manages to find a glimmer of light in a reality of hardship and fear. Everything in this novel exudes Neapolitanness. Even the cover which, with the image of Maria – a typical Mediterranean beauty – from the shelves of a bookshop attracts and exerts a real appeal
to look at it, which intrigues and determines the reader to scrutinize the contents of the book and then remain completely captured by it.
The cover in fact perfectly translates the essence of the protagonist who, dedicated to the profession of seamstress, has innate charm and elegance and a great passion for beauty. Qualities that together with her innate feelings place her in stark contrast with the environment in which she lives, hostile and suspicious because of her intentions for change. The first to row against her is her mother Nunzia, a seemingly unloving character, but who sinks her hardness into the vicissitudes of life.
Nunzia, reserving strong words that penetrate her daughter's soul, would like Maria to keep her feet firmly on the ground, becoming part of that reality that the protagonist stubbornly refuses. The difficult relationship with her mother, the lack of important maternal affection will be an element that will condition Maria and that will lead her to make decisions that can still hurt her, beyond her good intentions.
The protagonist finds instead affection, understanding and refuge in the enchanting figure of Pupella, a beautiful woman forced into the profession of prostitute, but who expresses sincere and pure feelings. Who caresses Maria as a child with her words full of emotional wisdom and taking care to keep her out of her reality permeated by expediency and sadness. The relationship with Pupella will be a further element of friction with the mother.
“Maria is a warrior, with blunt weapons, she has only one brain, two hands and a great determination and a great desire to improve, to change her social status, to escape from her absolute poverty, not for ambition but for survival.” (Maria Rosaria Selo)
Reserved and shy, Maria believes in love, but unlike her younger sister she is unable to approach this feeling in a light-hearted and carefree way.
Love does indeed arrive, but it begins by reserving for her the burning disappointment of betrayal and bitter renunciation. Even the man of her life Tonino Balestrieri – manipulated by his mother who dominates him with her cumbersome presence as a powerful, austere and decidedly snobbish woman – strikes her with a harsh blow when she decides to indulge her parents and leave for Brazil.
“Tonino was thinking about the two of them and, when you think about love, it means you don't love” But sometimes love comes back and Tonino shows up again. He wants her with him in Brazil, he wants to marry her and start a family. The courageous Maria realizes the desire of both and faces the long and anguishing journey to Rio de Janeiro, which however culminates in a hallucinatory experience. In the presence of her mother-in-law, not at all happy with her son's choice, the best years of her life know darkness, shadows.
“The devil didn’t seem to want to take his tail off his plate.”
The story is engaging, the dialogues are dense and often crossed by the concreteness of the dialect, capable of immersing the reader in the natural atmosphere of the city. But the distinctive feature of the narration is the continuous appeal to hope and strength, which never show weakness and testify with how much courage the protagonist has ridden the sad events of life.
The mandarin tree, the title of the book, which might even seem dissonant with respect to the story told so far, is in reality the constant reference of Maria's life. The bond between them is described from the first pages of the book, because this tree is located in the courtyard of the basement where she lives, in one of the poor neighborhoods of Naples, it serves as a place of dreams and desires, as a secret room. Maria as a child feels protected under its shade, plays with its fruits and becomes inebriated by inhaling their scent.
But the mandarin is also a constant thought of Maria as an adult and in difficulty, who through the memory of the moments shared in its warmth, perceives the same protection as in the past and restores her serenity.
Another engaging aspect of this book is that the author, as she herself stated, was inspired by the life events of her mother, who like Maria married by proxy, kept a vivid memory of her experiences and shared them with her daughter. “The Mandarin Tree” therefore expresses an added value to the narrative, that of the love of a daughter who wanted to pay homage to her mother with the intent of repaying her sacrifices, testifying to her courage and celebrating her depth as a woman.
Reconstructing the links of history, also through the dense correspondence between the families of her mother and father, jealously guarded for 60 years, is therefore a true act of love by Maria Rosaria Selo towards her family. A circumstance that confirms her human and not only artistic qualities.
Enjoy the reading!
Annamaria Cafaro
EDITORIAL TEAM
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